US prosecutors indict Mexican Mafia leadership in California

ORANGE, Calif. — Federal prosecutors introduced a sweeping racketeering case Wednesday aimed toward dismantling the management of the Mexican Mafia that managed avenue gangs in a part of Southern California.

The indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court docket towards three members of the group and 28 associates contains allegations of two murders, six tried killings, extortion and drug trafficking in Orange County.

Prosecutors mentioned the case wouldn’t eradicate the group, which primarily operates from behind bars to name pictures on crimes in jail and on the streets. However the prosecution would disrupt the management that arose when the longtime kingpin who for many years managed gang exercise in Orange County was convicted of racketeering in 2016.

“The message that this case sends is that should you rise to energy in that vacuum, we’ll come for you,” U.S. Lawyer Tracy Wilkison mentioned. “No gang member is past our attain.”

Twenty-one of these charged had been already in custody and 9 others had been arrested prior to now two days. One remained a fugitive.

The 106-page indictment fees members of the group with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, committing violent crimes to assist racketeering, conspiring to visitors medication, dealing methamphetamine and heroin, and firearms fees.

The Mexican Mafia, which was began within the Fifties at a juvenile jail and grew to a global legal group that controls smuggling, drug gross sales and extortion inside California’s penal system, is made up of leaders of various avenue gangs.

Leaders direct associates to gather “taxes” on medication proceeds and order hits on enemies or individuals who betray them or violate their guidelines.

For many years, Peter Ojeda was the pinnacle of the Mexican Mafia in Orange County, calling pictures from inside jail. After Ojeda’s racketeering conviction and subsequent 2018 dying in jail, Johnny Martinez, Robert Aguirre, and Dennis Ortiz crammed the management void, prosecutors mentioned.

“The triumvirate of recent leaders had expanded the Mexican Mafia’s management over the road gangs and Latino inmates in Orange County jails,” Wilkison mentioned. “These gang overseers stepped up punishment of those that violated their guidelines.”

It wasn’t instantly clear if Martinez, Aguirre and Ortiz had attorneys who might touch upon their behalf.

The indictment describes a sequence of crimes carried out as a part of the racketeering conspiracy that vary from shaking folks down for cash or dealing medication to murders plotted for exhibiting disrespect or violating orders.

One man was shot to dying in January 2017 throughout an armed theft that had been ordered. One other was lured right into a automobile in August that 12 months and shot seven instances for failing to pay a drug debt to Martinez, in accordance with the indictment.

At the very least two of the defendants within the case had been additionally targets of violence however managed to outlive vicious assaults.

Gregory Munoz was shot seven instances on the road in August 2017 after Martinez ordered him to be eliminated as a so-called shot caller, the indictment mentioned. He survived and is among the many defendants.

One other defendant, Michael Cooper, survived two hits — in January 2018 and one other assault on New Yr’s Eve 2019. Martinez allegedly ordered the killing as a result of Cooper had ordered a success he hadn’t sanctioned and was additionally suspected of inflicting a police raid on a gang.

Cooper was stabbed a number of instances within the head and again space within the first assault in Calipatria State Jail and reduce within the throat and face the second time.

At the very least 4 others survived tried slayings for allegedly abusing their authority, warning others they had been targets of violence and exhibiting disrespect to Martinez. One man had his throat slit for allegedly speaking about snitching on the Mexican Mafia.

Brian Gilhooly of the FBI mentioned that one of many targets of bringing the case is to lock up leaders farther from their dwelling turf in federal prisons, the place it is tougher to smuggle contraband.

Regardless of being locked in prisons the place cellphones are banned and communications are monitored, the Mexican Mafia operates by means of a crude however elaborate communication community of talking in code with smuggled telephones, notes handed between inmates and directions despatched by means of girlfriends and confidantes who go to.

“We’re going to ensure that these people get prolonged sentences, and get despatched to different prisons all through the nation,” Gilhooly mentioned.

———

Melley reported from Los Angeles.